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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

To Kill A Villain: Introduction

I recently saw Captain
America: The Winter Soldier for the fifth time. As I watched the Lemurian
Star sequence—near the very beginning—I appreciated for the first time that
Captain America straight up kills a lot of bad guys.

Admittedly most of these guys aren't dead, if any. Still a cool scene.

At the time I didn’t think much about it, other than
to really appreciate it. Steve Rogers felt like a breath of fresh air among
superheroes, someone who isn’t angsting over whether or not bad guys should
die. Steve Rogers doesn’t worry about whether or not the Red Skull should be imprisoned.
He worries about how many innocents the Red Skull will kill if he lives. (Yes,
I know that’s from the first movie, but I didn’t want to open with spoilers for
The Winter Soldier.)

Other than appreciating it, I didn’t think much more
beyond it, until the other night when on tumblr when the-cellist-in-portland
described Steve Rogers as “a precious, goofy, awkward death machine who no
doubt makes the best waffles ever.”

I really enjoyed her comment. I still think it’s one
of the greatest descriptions of Steve Rogers I have ever seen. And I have no
doubt Steve makes fantastic waffles. It was also awesome to see someone else
who appreciated that Steve Rogers is a killing machine. (Seriously, re-watch
the Lemurian Star sequence sometime. There is no mercy there what so ever.)

So I responded with: “Speaking of Death Machine, it wasn’t until I saw CA: TWS for
the fifth time this weekend, that I truly appreciated the fact that Steve just
effing kills people. He doesn’t angst over it like Superman and Batman. He just
does his freaking job and gets rid of the bad guys. If Steve Rogers was up
against the Joker, that dude would be dead. None of this put him in jail just
to have him escape in the next movie business. THANK GOODNESS FOR STEVE
ROGERS.”

The-cellist-in-portland responded: “He does get the job done. Damn yes, we need to let
him loose in the DC Universe and let him host seminars on ‘How to Get Rid of
the Bad Guy…Permanently and Without Angst’.”

At this
point I was prepared to end the discussion with an “Amen, sister” and a fun
gif, never to think about it again. But then a-long-way-from-here brought up
the following, amazingly excellent point: “I feel like Steve Rogers doesn’t have to have all the angst about
killing bad guys because y’know he is a soldier for a worldwide recognized
government/institution. If Batman kills a guy he goes on trial for murder.”

My gut reaction was “Well, Batman is a vigilante. He’s already going to jail, what more is
murder?” Then I realized all DC heroes are vigilantes and most of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe (MCU) heroes are not. I started thinking if that was the
difference on their views of killing people, and then I realized it was so much
deeper than that.

In the end it comes
down to three factors: how the person was raised (upbringing), what made the
person a “hero” (origins), and whether or not the hero has a higher authority
they’re answering to (vigilantism). To explore this idea, I’m going to use two
examples from the Marvel movies and two examples from the DC movies: Steve
Rogers, Tony Stark, Clark Kent, and Bruce Wayne.

Why these four
characters? I chose them because they are counterparts to each other in the
different universes. Steve Rogers and Clark Kent are both the virtuous leaders
of their respective superhero organizations, and while it’s true that Steve
cannot match Clark’s power, they both stand for “Truth, Justice, and the
American Way.” Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are almost perfectly matched in every
way, except in how they go about their superheroing. Both are men whose only
super powers are their wealth and intelligence. Comparing such similar
characters will hopefully allow us to understand how Marvel and DC have ended
up with such incredibly different views on whether it’s okay for a hero to kill
a villain.

For the sake of
simplifying this discussion, I am going to limit my discussion of the
characters mainly to movie canon. For Batman I am going to specifically
reference Christopher Nolan’s Trilogy. For Superman, I will reference Man of Steel. For any Marvel characters,
I will stick to the MCU. But basically, for the sake of this argument, the true
Steve Rogers is movie Steve Rogers.

Let me be clear about
something. This is not a discussion of whether it is actually the correct
action for a hero to kill a villain. This is not a discussion on whether we
want our superheroes killing villains. Clearly I have already expressed my
admiration for Steve Rogers for doing so, but my feelings are neither here nor
there. This is ultimately going to be a discussion on how these different
characters feel about killing and why they feel that way. And if we’re lucky we
perhaps might be able to draw some conclusions about the differences between
Marvel and DC, and why these movies appeal to the people they do.

Note: Read the next installment here! It's a study of the upbringings of Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark, specifically focusing on how deeply their fathers impacted them!

Comments? Anyone have any opening thoughts? Or do you think there are more than three factors that affect whether or not a superhero is okay with killing a villain? Also since I already expressed my opinion on admiring Steve Rogers for his willingness to kill, what do you guys think about that? Are you okay with superheroes killing their villains?